Caught On Camera, Toddler In Car Seat Tumbles From Moving Car In Mankato

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Mankato’s Cherry Street and Riverfront Drive is a busy route any time of day. But late Monday morning, near the entrance to the Hy-Vee grocery store it is where a motorist captured a terrifying scene.

Motorist Chad Mock, who was driving with his dashboard camera rolling, was following a small four-door sedan as it traveled around a slight curve on Cherry Street. That is when the vehicle’s left rear door swings open, and a child strapped into a restraint seat tumbles onto the pavement.

The car’s driver and child’s mother is apparently unaware of what happened. At the next stop light, you can see the door close and the vehicle continuing to drive away from the scene. Police say the woman returned minutes later to find her 2-year-old girl in the safety of paramedics.

Mock and other motorists quickly scooped up the child. With a restraint belt dangling from the bucket, they moved the little girl to the side of the road.

(credit: Chad Mock)

“I think there’s times we hear about this, but we don’t actually have the opportunity to have footage of it,” said Mankato Police Commander Daniel Schisel.

On Mock’s Facebook page, he wrote, “If it didn’t happen in front of me I’d never have believed it.”

It appears the child was strapped into the seat correctly, but somehow, the seatbelt wasn’t properly attached inside the vehicle. However, police still cannot say why the rear door would suddenly swing open.

The little girl was checked by paramedics and luckily was uninjured.

“It’s amazing that this child didn’t have any injuries,” Schisel said.

Meantime, the Blue Earth County Attorney’s office is reviewing the incident for possible child endangerment charges.